A Land Without Magic
A Land Without Magic Episode Number: Season 1, Episode 22 Directed By: Dean White Air Date: May 13, 2012 Previous Episode: An Apple Red As Blood Next Episode Broken "A Land Without Magic" is the 22nd episode and the Season 1 finale of the American fairy tale/drama television series Once Upon a Time, which aired in the United States on ABC on May 13, 2012. The series takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, in which the residents are actually characters from various fairy tales that were transported to the "real world" town by a powerful curse. In this episode, as Emma Swan and Regina Mills work together to save Henry's life, Emma discovers her destiny, while Prince Charming tries to escape from The Evil Queen and reunite with Snow White. It was co-written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, while Dean White served as director. Plot 'Opening Sequence' The magic Mr. Gold brings to Storybrooke rumbles through the forest. 'In the Character's Past' In the Enchanted Forest, as Prince Charming attempts to escape from The Evil Queen's palace, he finds himself outnumbered by her guards. Just as it seems he will be recaptured, The Huntsman comes to his aid and kills the guards with his arrows, allowing Charming to escape and continue on his quest to find Snow White. En route, Charming is transported to an infinite forest, thanks to the Queen and her mirror. Rumplestiltskin appears and offers to help him but Charming refuses. They fight with swords; Rumplestiltskin toys with him and soon disarms him. Charming notices his mother's wedding ring is missing. Rumplestiltskin holds it up and he offers Charming a deal: he will give the prince back his mother's wedding ring, now enchanted to lead him straight to Snow White, if Charming will put a golden egg containing a potion of true love inside "the belly of the beast." On his search for the beast, Prince Charming enters a castle and finds Maleficent, seated on a throne. She turns into a dragon – the beast – to attack Charming. He throws the egg into Maleficent's gills and, after he escapes, Rumplestiltskin returns the ring and magically dresses him in a new set of clothes with which to make his grand return to his true love. As seen in the series premiere, Charming races to Snow White's glass coffin, opens it and kisses her, waking her up. He proposes and she accepts. Together, they begin planning to take back the kingdom from The Evil Queen and Charming's sinister adoptive father, King George. 'Storybrooke' Henry has collapsed after eating the poisoned apple turnover intended for Emma Swan. She rushes him to the hospital. Dr. Whale asks Emma if the child has eaten anything or if anything untoward has happened. She shows the doctor the turnover but he dismisses any idea of poison because Henry is not showing any symptoms. Almost immediately, Emma begins to suspect magic as the cause. She looks at the Once Upon a Time book, which magically shows her flashbacks of her birth and the night the curse began. It is only now that she finally believes. As Regina enters the room to see Henry, Emma violently confronts her. A stunned and guilty Regina blurts out that the turnover was indeed meant for her and that the curse is real. The only one who may be able to help them save Henry is Mr. Gold who is, in fact, Rumplestiltskin. The two visit Mr. Gold, who now knows that Emma believes in the curse. He tells them that true love has the ability to break any curse and that, as a safeguard, he had imbued the curse's parchment with a drop of that potion made from Snow White and Prince Charming's love. Since Emma is also a product of Snow White and Prince Charming, she is the only one who can end the curse once and for all. Emma will have to retrieve the rest of the potion from its hiding-place in the belly of a beast. He presents her with her father's sword as a weapon against the beast. As to the potion, it is with Regina's oldest and only friend. Elsewhere, David Nolan meets Mary Margaret Blanchard and tells her that ever since he awoke from the coma, the only thing that has ever made sense to him was her. He goes on to say that he plans on leaving town and moving to Boston unless Mary Margaret gives him a reason to stay. Mary Margaret, moved by his words, still cannot bring herself to take him back and leaves. Before Emma goes on her quest, she returns to the hospital where she apologizes to the unconscious Henry for not believing him. She then goes to August Booth in an attempt to enlist his help and finds him lying in bed. Now that she believes, she can at last perceive August's body becoming wooden. There is just enough time for her to hear his last words of encouragement before he reverts to puppet form. At the hospital, Regina also apologizes to Henry but is interrupted by Jefferson, who has come to demand the completion of the deal made with Regina to reunite him and his daughter. Regina refuses, on the spurious grounds that Emma had not eaten the turnover as planned. As Regina leaves to join Emma, Jefferson sneaks into the hospital’s underground asylum to release Belle, instructing her to find Mr. Gold and enlighten him about Regina's doings. Regina takes Emma to a secret room inside the boarded-up Storybrooke Public Library clock tower. The room contains an elevator, but only one person can go down while the other operates it. Despite her hatred and mistrust for Regina, Emma decides she will descend while Regina stays above ground. As Emma arrives to the bottom, she sees Snow White's glass coffin, then finds herself face-to-face with Maleficent in dragon form. Emma starts fighting with the dragon, but discards the sword and instead fires her gun repeatedly at the beast. She soon realizes that the sword is the only way to kill the dragon. She retrieves the sword and hurls it at the dragon, causing it to explode and release the golden egg containing the love potion. Meanwhile, Mary Margaret is reading Henry's storybook to him in his hospital bed. As she reads he begins to flat-line. As Emma ascends in the elevator, it suddenly stops working. She hears Mr. Gold by the controls above her. He tells her that Regina has abandoned her then suggests that Emma should throw the egg up to him and he will wait for her as she climbs up. She complies. When Emma reaches the surface, she finds Regina tied to a chair and gagged. Gold is nowhere to be found. Emma frees Regina and as they go after Gold, they simultaneously receive calls from the hospital regarding Henry. When they arrive, they learn that he has died and both grieve. A devastated Emma goes to Henry's body, whispers to him that she loves him and kisses him on the forehead. This act is seen as "true love's kiss:" by a miracle Emma breaks the curse, bringing Henry back to life. This causes everyone in Storybrooke to regain their memories. The Blue Fairy suggests to Regina that she had best find somewhere to hide as everyone she has wronged will want revenge. Regina runs away, but not before telling a silently-watching Henry that she truly does love him. She returns to her mansion, lamenting her defeat and the loss of the only person she loves. Regaining his memories, David returns to town and finds Mary Margaret, calling out "Snow!" She responds by calling him Charming, confirming that they both remember. They embrace and rejoice in the fact that they have found each other again. Elsewhere around town, other Storybrooke residents are hit by the magic wave which hints they may also remember their fairytale past including Ruby (Red Riding Hood), Granny, and Archie Hopper (Jiminy Cricket). Back at the pawn shop, Gold is preparing an as-yet-unknown plan involving the potion, when Belle enters to tell him about what Regina had done to her. Gold is shocked to see Belle still alive and overjoyed to have her back. He sets off for the woods to launch his plan and takes her with him. On their way, the curse is broken and Belle regains her memories, declaring her love for Gold. He tells Belle they will have all the time in the world, but now, they must continue with the plan. They walk further and reach the wishing well in the woods. Gold tells Belle that the waters that run beneath it have the power to return what one has lost. He drops the love potion into the wishing well, which causes massive amounts of purple smoke to spew out of the well and spread around them. When Belle asks what is happening, Gold tells her that he is bringing the magic that they had once lost back to their world. When asked why, he tells her that magic is power. The purple smoke spreads quickly and engulfs everything (and everyone) in town. Regina watches from her mansion and deviously smiles, knowing that she will once again regain her magical powers. The last scene shows Prince Charming and Snow White standing in the street holding each other as the purple smoke engulfs them and the clock tower. The hand of the clock moves to 8:15 as the screen cuts to black. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Eion Bailey as Pinocchio/August Booth *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy Cricket/Archie Hopper *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Kristin Bauer van Straten as Maleficent *Jamie Dornan as The Huntsman/Sheriff Graham *Beverley Elliot as Granny *Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood/Ruby *Keegan Connor Tracy as The Blue Fairy/Mother Superior *David Anders as Victor Frankenstein/Dr. Whale *Lee Arenberg as Grumpy/Leroy *Sebastian Stan as Mad Hatter/Jefferson *Gabe Khouth as Sneezy/Tom Clark *Faustino di Bauda as Sleepy/Walter *Michael Coleman as Happy *David Paul Grove as Doc *Mic Marcario as Bashful *Jeffrey Kaiser as Dopey *Ingrid Torrance as Nurse Ratched Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features the Dark Curse. This is the first title card not to be accompanied by the usual opening music. *The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on March 20, 2012. *During the filming of the brief fight scene between Emma and Regina, Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla both suffered bruises from the way they slammed each other into the walls. *In the episode script, the scenes where Emma and her father fight the dragon Maleficent, were written as two separate scenes. The inter-cutting between the two fights, was the editor's idea. *Emma shouting "Hey" to the dragon before she attacks, like her father did, was Jennifer Morrison's idea. *The shot overlooking Storybrooke with the wave of magic travelling towards the camera is reused for the scene where where Regina releases Storybrooke's magic from the Olympian Crystal in "An Untold Story". It is also used when a cloaking spell is released in "Dark Hollow". In this episode, the wave of magic is digitally replaced by a magic shield. *Many fans were onset for the filming of Snow White and Prince Charming's reunion after the curse is broken. Since the director did not want fans to be aware the curse was broken, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas decided to say words which rhymed with Snow and Charming so they could dub over in ADR. At the San Diego Comic Con, Dallas stated he shouted, "Joe!" while Goodwin said, "Farming". *The smoke that pours out of the well and sweeps through Storybrooke was originally going to be green to match the mist that consumed the Enchanted Forest in the "Pilot". However, it was changed to purple to be "more symbolic and magical". *This is the only season finale not to feature Granny's Diner. |-|Goofs= *The date on the monitor screen over Henry's hospital bed is "10 Nov 08", but "Selfless, Brave, and True" establishes that the "Pilot" episode takes place in October 2011. *When Jefferson releases Belle from her cell, his neck scar from the side and back is missing. *When David and Mary Margaret are reunited after the curse is broken, "The Rabbit Hole" sign is missing from the entrance to the pub. *Regina cries while clutching Henry's bed pillow. In the next scene, the pillow is gone. |-|Other Notes= REAWAKENED: A ONCE UPON A TIME TALE *As the elevator stops, Mr. Gold tells Emma that Regina had him take over for her. Unlike the episode's events, Regina is not tied to the chair by Mr. Gold, and instead she ran off to the hospital to watch over Henry.